


Hear You Call

by neversaydie



Series: more than you bargained for [4]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Ben backstory, Closeted Character, Developing Friendships, Early in Canon, Family Issues, Gen, Nonbinary Character, ben opening up to his new friend, complicated family relationships, sammy stevens and his mysterious past, vague references to eating disorder if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 07:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14744640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neversaydie/pseuds/neversaydie
Summary: It's been a long time since Sammy had a friend, especially one who wholeheartedly absorbed him into his life from the word go. He'd worried it was hero worship at first (he's had a few interns make things weird in the past), but then Ben thew pancake at his head and called him an asshole a week into knowing him and Sammy figured that meant they were friends for real.Ben is a very eager person, a very all-or-nothing kind of guy who, once he decides you're his friend, is immediately your best friend. Sammy's had drinking buddies he shot the shit with or occasionally closer friends he snarked competitively with, but nobody as bright and untainted as Ben has invited him into his world so earnestly before.Maybe the kid's been lonely. That's just fine, Sammy figures, because he's been lonely too.[in which Ben takes Sammy on a trip to the peace garden, passes on some King Falls gossip, and lets his new friend in.]





	Hear You Call

"Hey, you busy this morning?" Ben is still typing notes right up until he closes his laptop, a scratched-up older model with a loudly-whirring fan and some band stickers holding the worst of the damaged case together. Sammy needs to find out when the kid's birthday is and get him a new one. "I got an errand to run, if you wanted to come."

They're packing up after the show, and Sammy is so tired he's wondering if he should get a nap in before he goes to check out the storage containers near Big Pine. It's been a few months since he got here, and he's increasingly having to force himself to maintain a positive outlook on finding _anything_ to suggest his fiance even made it to this shitty little mountain town.

And Ben… Ben is actually the best thing about King Falls. It's been a long time since Sammy had a friend, especially one who wholeheartedly absorbed him into his life from the word go. He'd worried it was hero worship at first (he's had a few interns make things weird in the past), but then Ben thew pancake at his head and called him an asshole a week into knowing him and Sammy figured that meant they were _friends_ for real.

Ben is a very eager person, a very all-or-nothing kind of guy who, once he decides you're his friend, is immediately your _best_ friend. Sammy's had drinking buddies he shot the shit with or occasionally closer friends he snarked competitively with, but nobody as bright and untainted as Ben has invited him into his world so earnestly before.

Maybe the kid's been lonely. That's just fine, Sammy figures, because he's been lonely too.

"Uh… Okay, sure," considering what a bouncy little ray of sunshine and rage Ben usually is, he's remarkably subdued as he shoves all his stuff in his rucksack today. Sammy figures postponing his latest futile investigation to spend some time with him wouldn't hurt. "What's the errand?"

"It's my zayde's anniversary, I try and get up to the peace garden - uh, cemetery - with my mom every year, but she's out of town so…" Ben trails off and smiles a little at the total confusion which is no doubt poorly concealed in Sammy's expression. He always did have a face for radio. "Grandpa. Well, technically my great-grandpa."

"Oh, right," he nods, fully willing to admit his own ignorance. "I thought that was… uh, bubbie?"

"That's grandma. She was already _long_ dead before I came along," Ben slings his jacket on over his hoodie - a beaten-up canvas thing with the sleeves turned up for length, which Sammy has to admit is kind of cute - because he seems to feel cold easily despite the fact it's nearly the end of spring. "You don't have to come if you feel like it's morbid, or whatever. I just figured you might wanna see some more of the Falls."

"Nah, that'd be nice, actually," Sammy knows he's made the right decision when Ben's face lights up as he agrees to come, and he can't help but find the kid's openness both endearing and slightly terrifying. He doesn't seem to have any kind of shell, and Sammy's afraid that a wrong touch might bruise him.

It's already warm outside as they leave the studio, and Sammy gives the morning guy a friendly little wave on their way out - he figures he can at least be nice, even if he doesn't intend to put down any roots here. Ben would usually be chattering a mile a minute, giving Sammy a verbal tour of what he's about to see, but he's a little more subdued today as he unlocks his old beater of a car.

He has to physically stick the key in the door of this thing to open it. Sammy despairs at small town life.

"You, uh, really like Jack in the Box, huh?" He raises his eyebrows at the state of the car - the back seat is pretty much completely covered in random pieces of sound equipment and old fast food containers - and Ben hurriedly sweeps the latest collection of greaseproof paper and napkins off the passenger seat so Sammy can get in.

"Gotta love a late night binge," Ben quips, although the touch of pink at his ears suggests he's embarrassed by his junk food habit. The kid must have the metabolism of a gnat, Sammy figures as he gets into the car with just a little awkward folding of his gangly limbs, because there were enough wrappers for at least four people in that bag.

"I miss being able to eat whatever I wanted," he sighs, exaggerating the wistfulness in his voice, and Ben snorts as he buckles his seatbelt.

"Alright, old man. We'll get you some prunes on the way back."

"I prefer spinach."

"Sure thing, Popeye," Ben rolls his eyes and starts the car, smacking the CD player silent when it suddenly blares Backstreet Boys as soon as the engine starts.

Sammy clears his throat delicately in the silence that follows, but Ben cuts him off before he can speak.

"Don't."

"I wasn't gonna."

"Douchebag," he mutters, pulling out of the lot while Sammy snickers. Ben is just full of surprises.

The drive down the mountain is beautiful in daylight, despite how treacherous it is in the dark, and Sammy rolls his window down to let in the warm morning air as they pass through the trees. Ben starts up his tourism act when they start hitting civilisation, pointing out various local establishments Sammy's usually too sleep-deprived to notice on his way home from work. He doesn't know how King Falls has a motorcycle garage, when he's never seen a single bike on the roads around here, but Ben launches into a long-winded retelling of some historical event involving wraiths (Sammy doesn't ask) which supposedly explains it.

Ben doesn't say anything when they pass the library, apart from telling Sammy to shut it when he politely enquires as to whether the lovely Ms Potter is working this morning. He does turn a very satisfying shade of magenta, though.

The little guy quiets back down when they get out of the other side of town, and Sammy's content to watch the houses thin out again until they're back to woods, slowly winding their way through the oddly complicated, narrow valley roads to get to the peace garden. He didn't grow up in a city like Jack and Lily, but Sammy's shitty hometown was very much urban - King Falls and all of its _landscape_ is something totally new to him.

"Must have been nice to grow up with so much nature around," he remarks, glancing over to where Ben is driving with one hand on the wheel and one hanging lazily out of the window. "You grew up here, right?"

"Yeah. I mean, my family's not from around here or anything," Ben explains, and Sammy makes a sound of mild surprise because he kind of figured King Falls was the sort of small town you were born into and never left. "My great-grandpa retired here, I think. I was never totally clear how he ended up in King Falls."

"You guys moved up here to take care of him, or…?" Sammy's interest increases when Ben laughs, a slightly bitter edge to the sound. He hasn't heard bitter from Ben before.

"Nah. He didn't pass 'til I was in high school. I was born here."

It takes Sammy a second, because something there doesn't quite add up, before it dawns on him what the weirdness of the situation is. He's not the best at math, but he can understand what your great-grandfather living until you were in high school means just fine.

He opens his mouth and closes it quickly, not sure if he's about to be extremely rude, but Ben just sighs and puts his other hand on the wheel, stretching his shoulders back for a second like he's bracing for the inevitable.

"Just ask, man. Someone else'll tell you if it's not me," he sounds tired, like he's explained this a million times, and Sammy can kind of sympathise because he's lived his life secretly to avoid having to do exactly that. "This is the kinda town where people _still_ talk about it, you'll find out eventually."

Sammy bites the bullet, because he's curious and because this would explain a lot about the condescending attitude he's heard from some of the older townspeople towards Ben when they call in.

'That _poor_ Ben Arnold, hasn't he done _well_ for himself, considering…'

"Your mom, was she… pretty young, when she had you?"

"Sixteen," Ben keeps his eyes on the road, but his white knuckles on the steering wheel tell Sammy he's forcibly holding himself back from glancing over to gauge his friend's reaction. "The, uh, my zayde was the only one who'd take her, in the family, so she moved up here. He wasn't ashamed of her at all… of either of us."

"And your dad…" Sammy trails off when Ben just shakes his head, adam's apple bobbing as he swallows heavily.

It occurs to Sammy that, although he's heard plenty about Ben's mom and a ton of childhood stories, Sammy's never heard a word about his father.

It's not like he's particularly forthcoming about his own personal life - he's pretty sure Ben doesn't know a single thing about his family, and it's not like he's even told him about _that_ relationship which is still too painful to touch - but it's an unusual area of absence for his talkative co-host.

Ben will tell a story about what he and Troy got up to on his tenth birthday, or the time he nearly blew up the oven back in high school (it was a 'science experiment'... and apparently Ben was frequently unsupervised), but he's never even mentioned his parents being divorced. It's as if his father was just never there.

"Not in the picture," Ben manages, eventually, although his voice sounds a little strained as he says it. "So, yeah. Little piece of authentic town gossip for you. Welcome to King Falls."

The silence stretches between them until it gets uncomfortable.

"My folks, uh," Sammy rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, figuring that he can at least share in kind, even if he usually wouldn't. "We don't really get along. I haven't seen them in years. They did their best, but I wasn't… exactly the kind of kid they wanted."

"Big shot radio host not enough for them?" Ben sounds disbelieving, and for a second - just a second - Sammy considers telling him _exactly_ why he was such a disappointment to the Stevens family.

And then the moment passes, and the bravery goes with it.

"Something like that," he shrugs, before glancing at Ben and forcing a smile. "I think they wanted me to be a doctor."

"You?" Ben snorts, and Sammy pretends to be extremely offended at the incredulity in his voice - though he's mainly just relieved the tension between them has broken. "Really?"

"I could have-"

"Paging Dr Stevens, he needs to remove his head from his own ass," he laughs when Sammy punches him in the arm, and the atmosphere in the car settles back to normal as Ben takes the turning signposted with a cartoon of what Sammy assumes are supposed to be heavenly gates. King Falls is a very strange place.

It seems too intimate, considering they haven't known each other very long, but Sammy's weirdly proud of the kid for getting ahead of the gossip and owning his supposed flaws. If only he'd been that confident when he was Ben's age, maybe he and Jack could have been open, and maybe none of this mess would have…

Lost in his thoughts, Sammy doesn't notice they've pulled up in the gravelly cemetery parking lot until Ben turns the engine off. The sudden silence reminds him of where they are and why, and Sammy looks over with a questioning look which Ben meets with a shy little smile. Sammy's never met anyone who manages to wear their heart on their sleeve and continually surprise him at the same time. Well, maybe one person, but that was different.

"Uh, thanks. For coming," Ben fidgets with the keys in his hands for a second, and Sammy registers the welts on his knuckles and the extremely chipped, barely visible traces of what he thinks must have been translucent polish on Ben's nails. This kid really is full of surprises. "It's not like he was my dad, but it's still kinda…"

"Hey, he raised you. That's a lot more dad than some people have," Sammy reaches over to pat him on the shoulder, somewhat stiffly, and Ben shoots him a more genuine smile like he's actually comforted by the touch. Look at him being emotionally available - Jack would be so proud. "You're gonna have to tell me if I fuck something up here, I haven't been to a cemetery for a while."

"Peace garden," Ben corrects, and Sammy makes a face because the term always inspires a grimace. "And it's cool, just grab a stone you like before we get up there."

"A stone…?"

"I'll walk you through it, man," Ben gets out of his beat up little car looking a lot more settled than he did when he got in, and Sammy follows… despite managing to bang his head on the stupidly low edge of the door.

He says something about a car designed for ants and Ben hip checks him into the nearest wall despite his generally sombre mood, and Sammy is actually oddly happy that he came up here today. Maybe he's right, maybe they really are _friends_ after all.

He even gives Ben a hug when he tears up, graveside. Putting his arms around someone who isn't Jack feels weird… but not in a bad way. Not when it's Ben.

Sammy doesn't deserve someone like Ben in his life... but he thinks he could get used to having a friend.


End file.
